Trade with Plaschke

So I was at my local Target not too long ago, and they had some 2010 Upper Deck blasters on sale. Now, I’m a Topps guy, so the UD set never really appealed to me. But, they were on sale 40% off, which is always hard to pass up. And, the box said you get a jersey card in every box. That has to be worth trying out. So, I took them home and ripped open the packs. When I got to the pack with the jersey in it, I was a little dumfounded. There in my hand was a jersey card of Dodger catcher Russell Martin. Not only is he no longer on the Dodgers, but he’s a friggin’ Yankee. What was I going to do with that card? A mere days later, my blogroll showed a post by Plaschke, Thy sweater is Argyle celebrating the newest addition to his Russell Martin PC. My eyes lit up. A Russell Martin collector? How exciting! So, an e-mail was quickly sent offering up the Martin. Unfortunately, Greg didn’t have any Red Sox relics to offer in trade. The only card off my wantlist he had was a 2010 A&G John Lackey. I decided that I was OK with that. I sent off the Martin along with some other cards to fill out the package in exchange for the Lackey, and whatever other Red Sox cards he stumbled upon. So, imagine my surprise when this beauty came out of the stack.

 

 

Apparently Greg went to his LCS in order to find a Red Sox relic to include in the deal. Is that an amazing effort or what? I couldn’t be more pleased. Thank You!

If anyone has any cards from his player collection wantlist, I suggest you try to get them to him a quickly as possible.

Card of the Week: 1990 Donruss #588

When Donruss lost their lawsuit in the early 80's, they had to stop inserting bubble gum into their packs of cards like Topps did. So, to be clever, they came up with puzzle pieces. In each pack, you'd get three pieces of a puzzle. What did the completed puzzle look like? Enter cards like #588 in the 1990 set.

That year's puzzle featured Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski. This card showed what the puzzle would look like when you were finished. I think of this card a lot when I open packs of cards these days.

Lately, you can't open a pack of cards without getting a card of somone who hasn't played in decades. And, those cards are pretty popular. In 1990? This card was of an "old guy" and was practically used as packing material. I wonder where the switch came in.

When you get down to it, this isn't all that different from the Allen & Ginter cards that are so popular. It's a very nice painted image of Yaz. But, I don't recall any excitement in 1990.

Or did I just miss it?

Bartolo Colon

So, I have a list of every player who has ever played a game for the Red Sox. Well, the list is actually in the Red Sox Media Guide. But, I retyped it over to an excel spreadsheet. Why would I do that? So that I can add their birthdates to the list. That was, at a glance, I can find out how old any player who ever played for the Sox is. Well, almost every player.

I don’t add players to the list until they appear in the following season’s Media Guide. So, I haven’t added Adrian Gonzalez or Carl Crawford to the list yet. It’s just easier to go through next spring and add all the players who appeared in 2011 then try to keep up with debuts over the season. It’s nice and easy, too, since I can use the same book to flip back and find their birth date. Provided, of course, that they’re still on the team the following year. This, unfortunately, means some players fall through the cracks. Someone like Rocco Baldelli was only on the roster the one year. So, by the time he was on the list of Sox players, he was already out of the media guide. I know what you’re thinking. It’s the information age. Just google the guy to find his address. And, I could. I just usually don’t. I have a list of players “to be googled.” (And, yes, Rocco’s still on that list.) The other resource I have handy is the 6^th edition of Total Baseball, printed in 1999. So, for older veterans, the birthdates are easy to grab in there. That worked great for players like John Smoltz, Billy Wagner, and Bartolo Colon. Or so I thought.

You may remember that I wished Mr. Colon a happy 36^th Birthday a couple weeks ago. Then, Colon and his “magic” right arm went out and pitched a shutout. All the media reports of the event gave him credit for being quite a bit older than 36. So, I’m left with a mea culpa. What went wrong? I’m not entirely sure. Either the book was wrong. Or, Colon is one of those players who suddenly got older in 2002 once they actually looked at their visas. Or, Colon’s “sudden” and “mysterious” improvement is less shocking because he’s really only 36. Whichever the reason, sorry for the confusion to my readers (assuming I can accurately use the plural form of that noun.)

I can’t believe nobody called me on it at the time.

Playing Nicely With Others

I’m sure I’ve said it before. I love the way all the Boston area sports teams seem to get along with each other. I think the cross promotion is great. It makes it a lot more fun for fans that are, naturally, fans of most of the local teams.

I think it’s great when the Red Sox home opener features players from other sports throwing out the first pitch. Was there a better scene than the World Champion NE Patriots suddenly appearing from under a giant flag? Or, the collection of former champions from the three other teams?

I liked it when the Red Sox wore green jerseys to honor Red Auerbach. I love the good luck messages to the Bruins and the Celtics that appeared on the wall behind home plate. It’s great that they show the Bruins scores on the scoreboard during games. It is really neat that the ownership groups at least appear to be one big happy family.

And, the players get into the act as well. Groups of Red Sox players have been known to show up at Celtics games. Other sports stars will find their way into seats at Fenway. I’m ever sure if those players are there as actual fans, or if they’re team appearances. But, in either case, it’s fun to see them all having fun with each other.

But, I still think it’s weird to change a game time. So fans can watch a game of another sport. On television.

I can understand if the other game was in Boston as well. It makes sense to tweak start times a bit. It will help with traffic. Maybe allow a fan to attend both games. I could see shifting a start time an hour or so just to make things a little easier. Maybe start the game at six instead of seven. That would allow fans to catch the last half of the Bruins game. I bet the local bars would love it. How many fans would flood out of Fenway directly into a bar to try and catch the end of the hockey game? (Ok, I guess those bars don’t have a problem filling the place without the Bruins.) But shifting a game six hours? That not only really changes someone’s plans for their Saturday. It’s really too much time. A 1:10 start time should be over by 5:00. That’s three hours before the Bruins game starts. It seems like a drastic change for a television show.

Thankfully, I didn’t have any plans affected by the shift. I wasn’t planning on going to the game. Having the game on at 1:30 didn’t affect my day any more than having it on at 7:00. But, I bet it really messed with some people’s weekend.

Anyone have plans ruined by the time shift?

Card of the Week: 1984 Topps #82

So, it looks like Topps had two chances to get a decent shot of Mr. Bird, and failed miserably in each case.

I like the 1984 Topps design. It’s another case where I like the length of the “Red Sox” name. It seems to fit well into the space provided. “Reds” is too short, and ends up looking like they’re trying to fill space. “Diamondbacks” would have been too long and crammed in. But, the “Red Sox” length is just right. It’s also great that both the team name and player name are easy to read, and easy to find when flipping through a stack. The left side placement of the team name really makes looking through a box for Red Sox cards a breeze.

But, then we get to those pictures. The nice part of the dual photo design is the ability to get a good look at the player in the headshot. In Bird’s case, though, it looks more like a mug shot. The headshot also allows the larger photo to show more action. Which is exactly what Topps has done. They have Bird actively looking at his glove. Woohoo. So, while the concept is a great one, in this case it wasn’t exactly pulled off.

Better luck next time.